Bush v. Gore is the ultimate example of politics and law intersecting and it shows how lawyers can affect an election in a dramatic way. But in Arizona, every election cycle brings its own set of controversies to be settled in the courtroom.

Horne considers legal action in attempt to speed up death penalty cases

The 11 convicted killers Arizona has executed since 2010 spent an average of 22 years on death row. Attorney General Tom Horne thinks that is too long. He also thinks suing the federal government will speed up the process, but others say that a successful lawsuit would bring few or no gains because Arizona lacks criminal defense attorneys who are qualified to do proceedings known as capital post-conviction relief and are willing to do it for $100 an hour, the rate set in statute. That has historically left the Arizona Supreme Court scrambling to find enough attorneys to handle the constant stream of death cases.

An appellate court has ruled that Arizona's redistricting commission generally must follow the state's open meeting law but that prosecutors cannot resume an investigation into whether the commission violated the law when it hired mapping consultants.